Thursday, March 31, 2011

I'm at the point where all this training by myself is really starting to get to me. When I signed up for IMTX, I had grand visions of training with my friends on the home course and having a great time. And then I moved to Colorado, which is triathlong mecca... just not right now. I am off schedule with EVERYONE. There are very few group rides - the few that I found are cyclists and not nearly enough miles for me. I've joined a few of the rides, but its still a bit awkward (hi, you don't know me and I don't know the area, but I need to add 30 miles to your course... and don't wait around for me). I had high hopes for making friends on my swim team. Turns out they're very competitive and not very friendly. And I did find a running group, but my training plan doesn't seem to have much in the way of long runs, and when I do have them, they're on Sunday (the groups all run on Saturday).

I typically have 5-6 hours of training each day on Saturday and Sunday, all my my lonesome. Or Lonesome Ranger as my friend put it. For a while, it was fun, as I was discovering new areas of Denver and having a lot of "me" time. Lately, though, its just become tiresome and well, lonely. I'm still not very familiar with ride that do NOT involve hills. I've ridden quite a few times NE of Denver, but its nice to see new scenery. So this past Sunday, I went and tried again to ride around Parker. Did the Map My Ride thing, picked out an 85 mile route that appeared to be all pavement. More hills and some wind, especially at the beginning of my ride... not really awesome for a warmup but ok. The plan was to follow county roads to Strausburg then head back down to Parker. 20 miles in, I encountered this:

sand and washboard + tri bike = scary surfing. not cool

I was hoping that this dirt would end over the next hill, but 2 hills later and nope, still dirt. So, I turned around, hoping to find an alternate route, only to find more dirt roads that should have been paved. So, at 2 hrs, I decided to make a pit stop at a gas station and try another road. As I got underway, I got a flat tire (front wheel). No biggie, I can change a tire. I set up on the side of the road, happy that I had just bought new tubes. Dumbass here rode 700 miles, including a 95 mile solo ride, WITH NO SPARE TUBES. After the 95 mile ride, I realized how dumb I was and promptly got 3 spare tubes. What I didn't realize, even though the guy at the store warned me, that the stems on the tubes were freakishly short. So I'm changing my tire, bust out my CO2 kit, then realize that I lost the presta adaptor. But I realized this AFTER I punctured a CO2 cartridge. Boo. Oh, no problem, I have my hand pump. The ONLY reason I had the hand pump, because you know, I'm super smart and never carry it normally b/c I have CO2, was due to Will making a smart ass comment as I was leaving about said hand pump. I decided that he jinxed me and took it along. Good thing, as he was fixing the radiator in my truck, which meant I did not have a rescue option. So, I'm working with the hand pump and realize that the stupid stem is too short for the pump to really attach to very well and the best I can do is inflate the tube to half pressure. ugh. I decide to limp back to the car, which was fortunately only 6 miles away.

And then I drove back home to do 2.5 hours of riding on the trainer.

Sad part is, I was actually kind of excited to be on the trainer because that meant I wouldn't be riding alone. I had my kitties, Will, and Season 1 of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to keep me company.

Thursday, March 24, 2011

What has continually amazed me is how my fitness level has grown by leaps an bounds in the past 2 months. Its amazing the distances I can ride or run, how little recovery I need between the long workouts, and how I'm barely even sore after doing these insane workouts.

A year ago, I was training for the LoneStar 70.3 and the Boise 70.3. Back then (oh so long ago!) my longest weekend workouts was something like a 14 mile run on Saturday and a 4 hour ride on Sunday. Or maybe a 50 mile ride and a 3 mile run. I remember being absolutely destroyed by these workouts and super sore.

Now, these workouts are my mid-distance type workouts, which are generally followed by something even longer the next day. Or sometimes by a easy recovery run 3 hours later on the same day.

Saturday: swim/bike brick with 4000 yard swim, 4 hrs bike, plus a 30 min recovery run later in the day / Sunday: 15 mile run

After each workout, normally, I should be passing out in exhaustion. Instead, I'm up and watching tv and usually have plenty of energy to go out to dinner. Each Sunday morning I wake up expecting to be too sore to walk, much less run or ride. Then each Monday morning, I expect to wake up and not be able to move. And each morning, I wake up, shocked to discovery that I'm not even the tiniest bit sore. Granted, I do an ice bath after each long workout now, but still.... I am not complaining though. The only noticable side-effect from my huge workouts is insatiable hunger. Its very cool but also very bizarre.

I'm really just blown away by my fitness level right now. I'm still not too sure about being able to complete 140.6 miles strong. I'm 100% confident that I can do 70.3 miles in 2 weeks without a problem (knock on wood). I feel good and that's a great thing being 8 weeks out from the most physically demanding day of my life. :)

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Things are much better than they were a few weeks ago. Something about not having anyone die, have a stroke, not being sick, and actually sleeping well may be the cause for my outlook being a bit brighter. I'm a pretty tough person, but the combination of at least 6 very stressful things absolutely kicked my ass.

We looked at 22 (!!!!) houses last Friday, from 9:30 to 5 PM. It was a marathon day and by the end our heads were swimming. I grew up in a southern suburb of the Denver Metro area. Work is on the far south end of Denver (I-25 and C-470). So as a result, I'm basically moving back to where I grew up. Not quite sure how I feel about that - part of me feels like I'm settling, but part of me likes that we're moving somewhere (mostly) familiar. Also, the south suburbs seem to have more organized athletic activities (Masters Swimming, mainly). We could live in the "cool" part of Denver and then I'd have a long work commute and likely a long commute to work out. Or we could live in suburban hell with a short commute to work and activities, then drive once a week into town to do something fun. We're going with the latter and hopefully that will work out.

We're shopping in Littleton, Centennial, Highlands Ranch, and Parker. I grew up in Littleton/Centennial. We now live in Highlands Ranch. Parker was, when I was growing up, basically Kansas. To my Houston friends, Parker is basically Katy. Now its a newer community and you can buy more house for your money.... that is if you are willing to live in Parker.

Our wish list is that we'd like a 3 car garage (so Will can have a project car), wood floors, master bedroom on the main floor, decent yard, big kitchen. Yeah, pretty specific and I'm pretty sure we won't find everything we want one house.

So out of 22 houses, we found 3 strong candidates. Because we've been watching too much HGTV, I'm going to set this up like House Hunters...

#1: Big yard but a long commute: This house is in West Littleton and is I guess a traditional style house. Living room, newly re-done kitchen, 1/2 bath, family room (with fireplace), and a study on the 1st floor, 3 bedrooms on the top floor, master bath connected to the master bedroom, and an unfinished basement. Yard is the largest of the three, 0.22 acres. Finished sq feet is 2250, with an add'l 920 unfinished in the basement. Can't remember if this one has AC or not... if it doesn't this could be a deal breaker. Also, this commute could be ugly - its 17 miles with pretty bad highway traffic.

#2: Awesome floor plan but only 3 bedrooms: This is in Highlands Ranch and is really close to the pool I swam at. This house felt more like "us" - really open. The kitchen is also awesome. Its got a huge deck (which needs repair - the railing is SCARY) and the yard is a decent size with a space for a garden. Problems are that the windows are old, the 2 sliding glass doors need replacing, and it only has 3 bedrooms. Not sure why we need 4 bedrooms, but that seems to be what we're looking at lately.

#3: Perfect... but in Parker: This house is AMAZING. 3 car garage, new wood floors on the main level, huge (new) kitchen. The master bedroom has a sitting area with a FIREPLACE. The master bath is newly re-done with a jacuzzi tub and a waterfall faucet. This has 3 bedrooms (all upstairs) and a study on the main level (which neither of us remember seeing). Unfinished basement and a tiny-ish yard (0.18 acre) and its a corner lot, which is good and bad. Good means we only have 2 neighbors, bad because that's a whole lot of sidewalk for Will to shovel! Also, this house is 9 miles to work. This house is on paper the best one, but I have to wrap my head around living in Kansas... I mean Parker.

Parker: Kitchen and Living Room

Parker: master bedroom fireplace (!!)

I really don't know which one we'll choose. We had dinner at the Parker microbrewery on Friday (5 min from the house!) and it was really fun. We even won a $10 gift card by winning their trivia contest. I did the pretend drive commute yesterday. There was ZERO traffic... but it was also spring break. I rode my bike out there on Saturday (to get to know the area). This was BAD because the winds were horrible and I nearly got blown off my bike numerous times. So much that I called Will for a rescue pick-up. I'm also going to swim with the Parker Masters team on Friday, so I can get that figured out.

What's ridiculously silly is that both of us feel that the Parker house is "too nice" for us. This is honestly the nicest place we've seen and we're not used to it. Its almost like we feel like we don't deserve nice stuff. Which is so amazingly dumb -we work hard for our money and of course we deserve nice stuff.

I did a pretend commute from the West Littleton house today, and it really wasn't that bad - 30 min. This area is more estabilshed (it has trees) and is closer to the mountains. This house also felt more like us. But it only has a 2 car garage......

Honestly, the idea of having a fireplace in my bedroom sounds amazing. I can see myself snugged in a comfy chair by the fire, reading all day long. I just don't know if I can see myself in Parker.

And of course, Will found 3 more houses (2 of which have good sized yards and are ranches, so no stairs!). We're looking at those on Friday, which could help, or it could add to the confusion.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

If there’s anything that’s been pretty well documented here, its my fear of hills on the bike. The first time I raced the IronStar course (which is part of the IMTX course), I really thought I would die. I actually ended up pulling something in my leg that stayed tweaky until after the Houston Half Marathon, 3 months later. Then there’s last summer’s Boise 70.3, where I’d drive 70 miles out to Chappell Hill to ride hills and I’d have nightmares about having to walk my bike up the hills during the Boise race. Turns out, the hills in Boise weren’t so bad – mostly because the wind was horrendous!

Since moving to Colorado, I am surrounded by hills. I get route recommendations from people, saying that its pretty “flat”, only to find out that there’s 2,000 feet of elevation gain. I’m trying hard to find a balance between getting better on the hills and not burning my legs up so that I can’t perform well in my next workout. I’ve also been trying to find somewhere to replicate the rolling hills that I will experience for IMTX. Replication is a bit challenging, because my memory is a bit fuzzy – and my point of reference has changed. I suspect that what appeared to be a huge hill a year ago is just a speed bump now. Because I’m a nerd and love data, I decided to overlay the elevation profile of IMTX with my ride that I did last Sunday.

Monday, March 14, 2011

Ok, so after 2 weeks of un-intentional (but sadly not predicted or preventable) not doing much, I am full ON with IMTX training. Last week was a “big week”, to quote my coach. Funny, I didn’t think the week day stuff was too terrible (although with my sinus infection and 2 weeks with little to no sleep, I was NOT complaining). The weekend was big stuff though.

What’s fun about the big weekends is that my thought process is usually like this:

Sunday night: open Training Peaks to get my schedule for the week. Think to myself “OMG, Carole is trying to kill me.”

Monday: print out my schedule to post at my desk. Stare at it in somewhat of a fearful state.

Tuesday-Thursday: obsession about the upcoming weekend and gradual acceptance

Friday: planning for the weekend. Plotting rides, routes, etc.

Saturday: Finish the workout feeling good but a bit sore and tired. Do an ice bath and hope I for a repeat performance the next day

Sunday: getting to business and being excited that I not only finished, but I finished strong. Ice bath and roll my legs out with my Stick to prevent soreness.

This past weekend, I had a 5 hour brick and a 6 hr ride. One of my friends offered to ride with me in Boulder Saturday, as she had yet to properly test out her new road bike, so that took care of planning out Saturday. Sunday I just decided to map out a course in Erie similar to what I’ve done twice previously.

Saturday

Schedule had a 4 hr ride / 70 min run brick. Met up at Marshall Mesa in Boulder and did what my friend called the “backroad cycling tour of Boulder”. What I noticed when riding with my friend was that on the decents and flats, I am actually pretty fast. It’s the climbs where I suck. I really hate being in my last gear and seeing 5 mph on my Garmin. Its just sad. Anyways, we did 40 miles in ~2:40. That’s all my friend had planned, so I was left to my own devices for the remainder of the 4 hours. I basically just did some out and backs along Eldorado Springs Road, then Cherryvale to Baseline and back. Nothing too hard – the goal was a zone 2 ride with time in the saddle.

We met at Marshall Mesa because my friend thought that would be good running for my brick. Ummmmmmm. I’m still getting used to this whole “running in Colorado” thing. Hills, trails, rocks. I’m not in Texas anymore! So, for the first 10 min of my run, I had to stay in HR z3. Not a problem, as the trail was mostly uphill with VERY uneven terrain. It was actually a bit scary – I really thought I was going to twist my ankle. Then (fortunately) after my 10 min mad dash up the hill, I came to this really steep section that I just couldn’t run up, so I walked. Then more slow jogging up up up until the trail leveled out to something a bit more practical. Still, it was a funky trail, since the place is used mostly for mountain biking and the trail is single-track. There were several times I’d have to stop to get off the trail to avoid mountain bikers, and a few times where I had to open/close cattle gates. It was hard, but definitely very pretty.

View of Flatirons from Baseline Road in Boulder

Marshall Mesa Trail Running

more trail running

part of the running "trail"

me, after 5:10 hrs of exercise

Stats: 61 miles in 3:57; 5.75 miles in 70 min

Nutrition: all EFS drink mix in grape, with 2 hammer gels. I had probably ~3/4 of a bottle left, which meant that I’m still not drinking enough. The EFS was fine on the bike, but on the run it just made my throat burn, like it was too strong, but I’m pretty sure I mixed it to the right strength. Also, I had a hell of a time putting my rings back on from water retention, which tells me the EFS has too many electrolytes for me.

And then I hit up Sports Authority for some more KT tape and a new shin split wrap (I have one, I just haven’t seen it since we moved). Turns out I let my running shoes die without knowing it, and my shin splits in my left leg are back. I think a few days with KT tape/wrap and some NSAIDs and I should be ok. I also got a moderately “puffy” jacket on clearance for more than 50% off. Score.

Boulder backroad tour

elevation profile

Sunday

Goal today was a 5:40-6:00 hour ride with some z3 intervals thrown in there. This ride was all by myself and I wanted to do this in one loop with a stop halfway for water, to simulate the IMTX bike. For whatever reason, I feel comfortable out northwest of Denver (Erie), so that’s where I mapped my route. I’ve ridden there 2x before and the area is fairly straight forward – the country roads go pretty much in a n-s-e-w grid, pretty decent asphalt surface, and low traffic. There are some hills, but its not as hilly as other Denver rides, and there’s plenty of wind. When I’ve ridden out here before, I usually start from the park and ride in Northglenn, but that means you start and finish in Northglenn, which has traffic. So to avoid that, I started in Erie. I intended to leave my truck at this gas station, but as I was setting up, the gas station attendant actually walked out and told me that I wasn’t allowed to park there. Even though the lot was huge. I guess I won’t be filling up there anytime soon. So I moved a mile down the road and parked by a park, and was on my way.

The interesting thing with creating my route from a map on the computer is that you’re never quite sure if all the roads are paved. Sure enough, 5 miles into my 95 mile journey, I ran out of pavement. Ugh. So I backtracked and changed my route up slightly, hoping I’d still capture my mileage. An hour goes by and my bladder is threatening to explode, even though I made a stop before starting out. Fortunately, I was near a truck stop off of I-25, so I pulled over to a McDonalds. Its always fun going into places in your cycling gear. I managed to finally get east of I-25 and pick up my route where I left off. My speed was actually faster than anticipated. Last Sunday, doing nearly the same route, I averaged 15 mph. For this ride, I was holding 16+ mph, even with decent cross and head winds. I stopped WAY too many times for map checks – not sure what to do about that but I really didn’t want to get lost. Stopped halfway in Milliken (as planned) to get water. I had concentrated my Infinit 3x then added water for another 3 hrs of nutrition. Riding-time-wise I was ahead of pace (54 miles in 3:13 – 16.78 mph) but actual time, I was really slow. I started at 10:16 AM and it was 2:00 when I hit Milliken (3 hrs, 45 min). But, that included 2 bathroom breaks, re-filling my water, and several map checks. Still – 30 min of being stopped…. Gotta work on that. Heading back to my truck was fairly uneventful, as I’d ridden a good portion of those rodes before and knew my way. I made it back to my truck at 5:45 hrs and 95 miles logged. I thought about going for an even 100 miles, but my right hamstring was getting tweaky and my right quad was acting like the muscle was getting pulled. As cool as it would have been to log 100 miles, it would have sucked much worse to get injured in that last 5 miles.

Stats: 5:45 hrs, 95 miles

Nutrition: 1 bottle in the first hour of EFS, then switched to my Infinit protein mix. At the 3 hr mark, I had probably ~1/2 to 3/4 of a bottle left untouched (as in I’m still not drinking enough), but when the ride was done, the same amount remained, meaning I drank the right amount during the back half of the ride. I think Carole may have been onto something about my Infinit mix, though. A few weeks back I had side-stitches and she thought it was from the protein. I protested, saying I did two HIMs with this mix and didn’t think it caused me any issues. She had me talk to one of her nutrition gurus, and he suggested that diabetics/hypoglycemic don’t actually need protein during endurance sports. He sent me some EFS to try out, to see if I noticed a difference. The EFS was ok (except for the burning during my run on Saturday). When I switched to my Infinit, my stomach felt heavier and very slightly crampy within minutes of taking a slug. So, there may be something to that….. I dunno. What I do know is that I need to figure this out pretty quickly – time is running out.

I also had 4 hammer gels and a few bites of a protein bar (for the stomach grumblies). I had good energy for the whole ride.

Effort: This ride had me do 1 x 30 min at Z3 and 1 x 40 min at Z3. This was early on in the ride and the rest of the ride was “as you feel”. I added on an extra 1 x 30 min Z3. The great part was that I felt STRONG for the whole ride - stronger than I remember feeling ever before. I also really focused on keeping my chain on my big ring as much as possible – I think I dropped down to my small ring only 4 times, which is awesome. At about 4:30 my saddle region got sore but otherwise, everything else was fine.

I finished the ride with a huge boost of confidence, knowing that I’d just ridden a hilly, windy 95 miles solo.

The ride was followed up by a trip to Starbucks (whole milk latte and a choc chip cookie). Then home for an ice bath. Impressively enough, I’m barely even sore today. Pretty cool weekend – makes me feel like I’m getting ready for IMTX.

Friday, March 04, 2011

The world lost one of the last true cowboys. Will's grandfather died on February 24, 2011. He had a heart attack the week prior, and we were fortunate enough to fly up for that weekend and had a good 3 days of laughter, conversation, and reminiscing. We flew back home, thinking he was going to be ok. The next day he had a stroke. We flew up Thursday and got to the hospital right after he passed away. Seeing his grandmother in the hosipital after he died, snuggling up to her husband of nearly 66 years, was one of the saddest and sweetest things I have ever seen. Even though he's my grandfather by marriage, he is very much my grandpa. He died 5 weeks short of his 90th birthday. He is definitely missed.

William Howard Walker

Obituary

William Howard Walker was born April 12, 1921, in Glenns Ferry, Idaho, at the home of his parents Gilbert and Lena Walker. Bill was the youngest of five siblings including Evelyn, Bert, Virginia and Pat. He passed away February 24, 2011 in Mountain Home, Idaho.

Together with his brother Pat, and father, Gilbert, Bill was part of a third generation family who owned and operated their ranch at Cold Springs Creek. Bill valued hard work, close ties to the land, and solid principles. He toiled to produce better crops, improve the quality of livestock, and clear new land. Opening up three desert entries and developing six irrigation wells were among their ranching accomplishments. When asked what the hardest thing about life on the ranch was, without missing a beat, Bill replied, “The shovel and the pitchfork.”

Bill played football and graduated from Glenns Ferry High School in 1939. He attended college in Pocatello and worked in Seattle at the Boeing aircraft plant, helping assemble the A-1 fighter. Coming home from Seattle in early spring, he bought a sporty Indian motorcycle in Moscow, Idaho, from Addison Stone, a childhood friend. It proved to be quite a task to keep the motorcycle upright for much of the trip was in icy ruts. By the time time he got home, he had a severe sunburn and was chilled to the bone--good thing he was young and tough.

After returning to the family ranch in 1944, Bill was introduced to a young schoolteacher at a friend's home. He and Margaret Blanksma dated and were married on March 30, 1945. They recall how ecstatic people were when the war in Europe ended that summer; Margaret drove down to the field where Bill was working to relay the good news. That evening everyone in the family went to town and celebrated.

Bill honed his musical talents in productive ways. His musical skill emerged in high school, whether he was singing the lead in a musical or entertaining at weddings and funerals. With Bill playing harmonica, and his brother Pat playing the guitar, many good times were had dancing and singing after the spring and fall brandings. At local square dances, he enjoyed being an announcer by calling out lyrics to songs like the Alabama Jubilee or Ghost Riders in the Sky.

Together with Margaret, Bill designed and built a home at the Cold Springs Creek ranch, doubling its size as the family grew to four daughters. He immensely enjoyed attention to detail and instilled quality in his carpentry. Later, he remodeled their present home on Rye Grass Creek and enlarged the Cow Camp Cabin on Bennett Mountain.

History of the local area, his family heritage, and a deeply embedded love of the United States were a great pleasure to him. He and Margaret especially enjoyed their trip to the East Coast and South Carolina, where they visited family and toured the nation's historical treasures.

In the seventies, Bill got a kick out of entering a competition to rename a local credit union. He sketched an oxen-drawn covered wagon and composed a narrative for the contest. His entry, Pioneer Federal Credit Union still stands. Margaret and he enjoyed a trip to Hawaii as the result.

Bill served on the Elmore County Soil & Water Conservation District Board over 20 years, as well as, the Glenns Ferry Highway District Board. He was a member and trustee of the Elks, chairman of Idaho Cattle Association Convention, and past president of the Elmore Cattleman's Association.

Bill was a “Jack of all trades, master of many.” He found satisfaction in adding quality and value to anything he pursued, whether it was improving the land or upgrading the cow herd. He enjoyed his horses and riding on the desert and Bennett Mountain. He designed and installed lines for numerous water troughs and other irrigation projects. He loved a special horse, good cows and special companion dog.

Bill valued his family very much. He was patient in teaching his children and grandchildren life skills and had a quiet and calm manner. He encouraged Margaret and all four daughters to pursue college degrees even though he did not have the same opportunity.

Rosary services will be held at Rost Funeral Home, 500 N. 18th E., Mountain Home, on Monday, February 28, at 6pm. Funeral mass will be held Our Lady of Good Counsel Catholic Church, 115 N. 4 E., Mountain Home, 10am, on March 1.

I had very high hopes for February..... then Will's grandfather passed away and I simultaneously got a sinus infection. *poof* 2 weeks of training just didn't get done. But, the weeks I was able to train, I did get some quality stuff done.

Bike: 19h 06m - 256.24 Mi

Run: 7h 46m 59s - 36.11 Mi
Swim: 9h 50m - 27650 Yd
Core Training: 15m

Evaluation of February goals:

Survive training. I suspect that Feb will be a build month. Lots of cycling. On hills. At altitude. My goal is to keep a positive attitude and keep working at getting better. still working on hills, but altitude is getting better.

Figure out how to train in cold weather, even if that means treadmill. Or figure out what to wear when its cold and I run outside. Or figure out how cold is "too cold to run". Last month actually wasn't horribly cold. I did have one day where we had 5 inches when I needed to do a brick, so instead of running, I did a hike through the snow. It was actually fun.

Goals for March:

Survive training. More building and catch up in March. Lots of cycling. On hills. At altitude. My goal is to keep a positive attitude and keep working at getting better.

Figure out how to train in cold weather, even if that means treadmill. Or figure out what to wear when its cold and I run outside. Or figure out how cold is "too cold to run".